Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said it was wrong to think British troops could be sent to 'sort' the problems in Iraq

Britain will not repeat the ‘mistake’ of the 2003 Iraq war by sending troops to deal with the uprising by Al Qaeda-inspired militants, Nick Clegg warned today.

The Deputy Prime Minister rejected the idea of the UK becoming involved in tackling the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group which has already seized Iraq's second biggest city Mosul and Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit.

Today the group boasted it had full control of Kirkuk while its leaders boasted it step up their drive towards the capital Baghdad.

More than a decade after Tony Blair’s decision to join George W. Bush’s invasion, leaders on both sides of the Atalantic are reluctant to become embroiled in a new conflict in Iraq.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has appealed for help from the international community.

But Mr Clegg insisted this would not involve British troops returning to Iraqi soil.

Speaking on his LBC radio phone-in, Mr Clegg said: ‘We provide help to the Iraqi government. We provide training and equipment and so on.

‘I have no idea what the Iraqi government will be asking of others in terms of the material support they need or the training they need.

‘If in one way or another the invasion of Iraq in the first place has contributed to the instability in Iraq more widely, should we be going back in to try and sort it?

‘I don’t think having made one mistake you repeat it by making another one.

‘That doesn’t mean that I have a perfectly packaged solution for this.’

The ruthless rebel al Qaida splinter group this week took control of second city Mosul and Saddam’s home city of Tikrit as part of an effort to set up a Sunni militant enclave across the Iraq/Syria border.

Foreign Secretary William Hague yesterday dismissed suggestions that the UK had a duty to intervene because of its previous role in the Iraq war.

'You can't say the crisis was created by invading it and then we should invade it again,' he said.

'I don't think that's part of the solution. It is a democratic country with democratically elected leaders and that is something it never had before.

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'It also faces the challenges of extremism and that is something we have to support them in dealing with but ask them and expect them to take leadership in their own country.'

Militants have taken 48 hostages from the Turkish consulate in Mosul and United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon urged the international community to 'unite in showing solidarity with Iraq as it confronts this serious security challenge.'

'Terrorism must not be allowed to succeed in undoing the path towards democracy in Iraq,' he said.

Iraqi displaced families queue at a checkpoint in Erbil, Kurdistan region after fighters from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) captured key cities from government troops

Foreign Secretary William Hague has ruled out sending in British forces, in a repeat of Tony Blair's 2003 invasion

However, Iraq-born Nadhim Zahawi claimed the 'divisive sectarian' rule of Mr al-Maliki had fanned the flames.

Mr Zahawi told BBC Radio 4’s Today that the US might consider providing air support to Iraqi troops in efforts to retake territory.

'This really goes back to the US policy in Iraq when Paul Bremer was administering the country. He took a decision, backed by the American government, to disband the Iraqi Army - the ‘de-Ba’athification’ process,' he said.

'He sent home 700,000 men with weapons, no jobs, no job prospects, predominantly Sunni, to their families.

'Some of those people organised and this chap Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who is the emir of Isis, is one of those men.

'It is compounded by Maliki’s divisive, sectarian policies. Maliki is the commander in chief and the minister of defence - because he hasn’t appointed anyone - so he decides who gets promoted within the army.'

Tory MP Nadhim Zahawi blamed the 'divisive sectarian' rule of Iraqi PM al-Maliki for fanning the flames of tensions in his country

The premier had also withheld funds from Kurds amid ongoing efforts to create a 'true coalition' government bringing together all sides after inconclusive elections which gave no party a clear majority.

'The Americans have sold Maliki some fighter jets. I don’t know whether they would go further and heed his call for further intervention with some air cover for the Iraqi military to be able to retake some of these cities,' Mr Zahawi said.

The MP - who was among those who supported strikes on the Syrian regime of Bashar Assad last summer which were effectively voted down by the Commons - said failure to act there had opened the door to groups such as Isis.

'I argued for very limited intervention to take the chemical weapons out of the game in Syria to protect the silent majority of innocent people,' he said.

'Early intervention in Syria, supporting people who were working towards replacing Bashar al Assad with a moderate democracy which is inclusive would have been the right move because otherwise the message you send to the silent majority is actually you don’t care about them and that is where these groups thrive because they go in and they are brutal and they take over and fill that vacuum.'